MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry

Ubisoft will release a new free-roaming driving game in June – especially designed for a six – ten-year old male audience. Emergency Heroes lets gamers team up with policemen, firemen and resuce drivers, characters which Ubisoft calls ‘the heroes of young boys’ dreams’. Players hold the Wii Remote like a …

Ubisoft has signed a deal with Valve to bring over 40 of its titles to North America through the online Steam platform. Assassin’s Creed is the first title to be made available for pre-purchase, and will be able to be downloaded from April 9th. Tom Clancy titles, the IL-2 Sturmovik …

Publisher THQ has grown its casual games label ValuSoft by confirming the acquisition of online games creator Elephant Entertainment and a deal with developer Oberon media to release the firm’s games at retail. Develop has the full story – head over there for more.

Publisher buys US firm Elephant Entertainment, signs Oberon retail deal and plans to launch 20 casual and online games in '08

It’s quick and easy to criticise but far harder to give credit where credit is due. And that old adage is just the right way of describing some of the thoughts I’ve heard from inside the industry about Play.com Live. Boring”, Empty”, Waste of time” were just some of the …

EA’s UK VP and general manager Keith Ramsdale has revealed his disappointment over the Byron Review’s scaling back of PEGI’s powers – and vowed to convince the Government of the body’s importance. With the Review published and backed by PM Gordon Brown, the Government now moves into a period of …

After a successful debut on DS and a remake/sequel on Wii, Atlus’ imaginative Trauma Centre franchise is heading back to Nintendo’s handheld, DSfanboy reports. The game, currently dubbed Under the Knife 2, will pick up where the first title left off, and will once again feature the likes of Dr. …

Codemasters is to expand its casual gaming portfolio with Bella Sara, an interactive world of fantasy horses for Nintendo DS and PC. The game is based around the award-winning trading cards and online websites, which has seen over 40 million cards sold between 5-12 year old girls since the series …

Jester Interactive is set to return to the industry by bringing back a number of its key franchises. The first game on the comeback trail is TT Superbikes: Real Road Racing Championship for PlayStation 2, which is due for release in May. The game is designed to be the most …

Big Brother and Deal Or No Deal creator Endemol has told MCV that it is eyeing the online services of next-gen consoles for casual games adaptations of its franchises. The US firm appointed Eric LaVanchy, founder of online ‘advergaming’ developer Bottle Rocket, as its new director of gaming last month. …